1973 CHÂTEAU LATOUR 1973

(12-1997) As luck would have it, I tasted this wine during a recent dinner. After Sociando-Mallet 90, Fieuzal 88, La Conseillante 88, we needed something else for the after cheese and our insatiable curiosity. The originality of the style, the blend that only age brings and the astonishment created by a vintage that we no longer speak of have delighted us. We must never forget the extraordinary longevity of Latour wines, including vintages deemed average. Color. Dark red, good intensity for the year, slight evolution. Nose. Clean, intense. Mocha, cedar, blackcurrant, smoked. Restlessness. Quite powerful. Soft and suave attack developing on a round and very tasty structure, with a slightly relaxed but very aromatic, fresh, spicy texture. Melted tanicity. Final evoking cream, metal, spices and blackcurrant. Drinks wonderfully well. His youth amazes.

(04-2013) Served from ex-chateau magnum at the Academie du Vin dinner, the Latour ’73 must surely be one of the wines of the vintage, which is not saying a lot considering it was one of the worst growing seasons ever. Deep in colour, the nose is closed at first and then opens to reveal a curious but not dislikeable scent of kidney beans and melted tar. The palate is medium-bodied with chunky but not brutish tannins. Yet it is unapologetically masculine but uncharacteristically bucolic. There is decent freshness here – an enjoyable off-vintage First Growth that made good “old bones”.

(03-2009)

(01-2012) We were a bit afraid before uncorking such a bottle. This wine is almost 40 years old and is from a very bad year : 1973. A wine with many red flags, however... The colour is beautiful. The nose also. Not exuberant but fine. No trace of oxydation nor of "old cellar". The mouth is interesting, acidity dominating a bit, the tannins are well integrated. Less lean than expected. This wine is soft, mature and charming.